Jacksonville Giants want to take it one step further in second season

Former NBA star Laettner suiting up for opener as 'celebrity' player

Jermaine Bell (right) is one of six key players returning for the Jacksonville Giants' second season.

Kevin Waters prepared for the start of the Jacksonville Giants season this week by getting crowns on two of his teeth. Tonight begins the quest for a different crown — to coach the Giants to an American Basketball Association title.

On the court, that ultimate goal is about all that eluded the Giants last year. They finished the regular season 23-0 and played at a fast and furious pace that peaked with a 206-point performance that they claim as a single-game pro basketball record.

But all that came crashing to a halt when they lost a pair of games in the playoffs. One of the teams that beat them, the Gulf Coast Flash, provides the opposition when Season 2 begins at 7 p.m. at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.

Six members of last year’s Giants return: Anthony Lumpkin, Jermaine Bell, Nick Wallery, Matt Fields, Sherod Harris and Antonio Lawrence. Lumpkin, Lawrence and Jason Bennett were all injured and unavailable for the playoffs and that contributed to the abrupt elimination after the perfect regular season.

It prompts Waters to say, “Our goal this year is try to keep guys healthy.”

The Giants have added ABA veterans Dwayne Jackson (34 points a game for the Heartland Heat), Sherrod Reddick (an all-star with the Savannah Storm) and Currye Todd and Lamar Sanders, who played last season for the Southeast Texas Mavericks, the other team that beat Jacksonville.

“If we can’t beat ’em, we steal ’em,” Waters said.

Waters says he’ll employ his whole roster, rotating in a platoon of fresh players every few minutes. “If you have a uniform on, you’re playing,” he said. “With our style of play, we have to do that.”

Also in uniform for tonight’s game and a handful of others will be Christian Laettner, the former Duke and NBA star who lives in Ponte Vedra Beach and will be the Giants “celebrity” 13th player that each ABA team can carry.

“I can give them 10 to 15 good minutes, and hopefully they won’t need it,” Laettner said. “I’m here to be a good practice player and say a few insightful things once in a while. And to increase the fervor and love of basketball in the area.”

Laettner operates a basketball academy and hopes to conduct clinics before several Giants games, including one of two games (Dec. 14, Jan. 27) the team is scheduled to play at the University of North Florida Arena. Giants owner Ron Sholes said the team hopes shifting two of 12 home dates from the Arena to UNF will broaden its fan base.

In spite of the Giants’ prolific offensive totals last season, Waters says his numerical goal has only two digits and applies to defense: Hold the opponent to 80 or fewer points and you win, he says. Defense can also directly contribute to a team’s score. The ABA’s 3-D rule awards an additional point (three for a regular field goal, four for a 3-point shot) to a team that scores after preventing its opponent from advancing the ball past midcourt.

Sholes said average attendance of 5,000, more than double last year’s figures, would help buoy his continued involvement toward Mayor Alvin Brown’s goal of bringing the NBA to Jacksonville.